Old Westwood NES Games

NESGuide.com posted this 15 minute video containing every U.S. game release for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. That is 1.1 seconds for each NES Game.



If you look watch real carefully, you can see each of the three Westwood NES games I worked on. They are DragonStrike (03:35.3 - 03:36.4), Pac-Mania (08:27.9 - 08:29.0), and Vindicators (12:56.3 - 12:57.4). Note they are all credited as Westwood Associates, not Westwood Studios. They were all published before the Virgin Games buyout when we changed our name.

If you want to see a bit more of each of those games, NESGuide.com's list actually links to these pages which has more video:

DragonStrike

The player character is a knight who flies on the back of a metallic dragon equipped with a lance and various magic items (among other things a magic orb that acts as a radar in the game). The player's dragon can use its recharging magical breath to attack and can also attack with its claws if the dragon passes closely above enemies. Opponents in the game include evil dragons with and without riders and other flying monsters such as manticores and beholders. Flying too close to the ground is another hazard for the player as enemy archers are present in some areas.

Pac-Mania

Just like most of the other games in the Pac-Man series, the goal is for Pac-Man to eat all of the dots before he is caught by the ghosts. This game has several significant changes from the traditional format. The first, and most noticeable, change is that the board is viewed in an isometric, 3D format. Because of this, it can sometimes be difficult to remember where the ghosts or the remaining pellets are. Secondly, and more importantly, Pac-Man can now jump. This in principle makes evading ghosts easier.

Vindicators

The Tangent Empire are preparing to attack the earth with their convoy of tanks, and it is you who has been sent forward to destroy the 14 space stations which make up the potential invasion threat. There are 3 sub-levels on each station, which can be played in any order. The action scrolls in every direction, with you guiding your tank-link droid around to shoot the opposition droids. The tank takes a while to steer, making it initially harder to avoid contact with those enemies. Each level contains energy stars, which can be traded in for upgrades such as improved weapons and extra speed after each level.

The scary thing is I think that I was the sole artist on those games, and there several bits I have no recollection of. Though, the technical restrictions of creating art on the NES was a enough of a nightmare that I'm not surprised I blocked some of it out.

There are a few other games in the first video that are ports of original Westwood Games, but that we didn't do that port of. The one that comes to mind is Hillsfar.

Uber Lame Nintendo

I've said before how much region locking pisses me off. I just read an article over at CVG that says the new Nintendo DSi is going to be region locked. The DSi is the new version of the Nintendo DS hand-held that is thinner, bigger screens and has two cameras.

To clarify that, the specific DSi cartridges can only be played on a DSi hand-held of the same region. If you have an American DSi (which probably won't be released until next year) it won't play any DSi cartridges that you bought in Australia. You can still play any normal DS game on any DSi hand-held, it is just the specific (market dividing) DSi games that are restricted.

A Nintendo spokesman explained to CVG:

"DSi is region locked because DSi embeds net communication functionality within itself and we are intending to provide net services specifically tailored for each region. Also because we are including parental control functionality for Nintendo DSi and each region has its unique age limit made by different independent."

Dear Nintendo,

Bite me.

I will not be buying a DSi whenever you get around to releasing it where I happen to live when you deem it worth to sell outside of Japan. That is unless you are going to have a representative at every international airport that will exchange my DSi cartridges for ones of the region of the country where I have just landed.

Love,
-Joseph-

Seriously, this is bullshit. There is no reason their excuses above can't be built into the system. It is nothing more than an attempt to block importing games from one region to the next. Once again it is me, the normal consumer who is going to be hurt just because I travel a lot. I think the DS being region free is one of the reasons it is so successful. Its a hand-held system that you TAKE WITH YOU WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

All of this is also going to hurt the smaller developer. It just sucks all round.

Can You Find a Wii?

I was reading through the latest various news sites this morning and two things caught my attention.

The first was Mr. Squinty guy, Hal Halpin - founder of the Entertainment Consumer Association, and his little dissertation on how the EULAs (End User License Agreements) are getting out of hand and that we should do something about it.

EULAs are a real and tangible problem for our business. Quite simply, they're out of control. The best intentions of lawyers in the business aside, these contracts have become so unwieldy that they regularly infringe on consumer rights. Many would likely be unenforceable in a court of law. Others, consumers would be shocked to find out what all of that fine print actually meant.

He is proposing a committee get together and discuss the problems and see if they can't work out some sort of standardization. At this point I would be happy if they just got them to the point that they are readable with requiring you to have a 4-year law degree and that they didn't require the sacrifice of your first born child. Anyway I guess will have to wait and see if he goes anywhere with this. I think it is exactly the kind of thing the ECA should be working on and that doing so will help increase its membership, legitimacy, and clout.

The second thing that caught my attention was KBC Securities Japan, which on Thursday downgraded Nintendo stock from a "Buy" rating to a "Hold" rating and cut its 12-month price estimate by 30 percent to 57,500 yen ($580), according to Bloomberg.com. The reason I latched onto this was that my friend Mike went through Perth yesterday trying to buy a Nintendo Wii. NOBODY had them in stock. How can they say Wii sales have peeked if they still haven't managed to catch up with sales demand 2 years after its original launch? Seriously, every console has always been hard to find during it's first Christmas season, but its 3 months after its second Christmas and you still can't find them in stock. Granted this is Australia. Anybody know the chances of finding a Wii in stores in the U.S.? Not just your local game store either, but in department stores as well.

What has he gots in his pocketses?

I was dumping all this stuff out of my pocket the other night and was marveling so much at the pile I created that I thought I would share.

Swiss Army Wallet
I prefer what I think is called a business card wallet. It is just a simple one fold wallet with a driver's license window on the top half and two pockets on the bottom. Wallets with too many separate pockets are just too thick even when you don't have anything in them.

Black & Crimson Nintendo DS
This color isn't available in Australia so I like to show it off and impress all the women. I bought it in Seattle when I was back in the states for PAX. I have the wireless browswer cart plugged in there but I has of yet been able it to connect to my wireless router. The game in there is the new Zelda. I normally have Picross too but I think its in my camera bag.

Notebook
Before I moved to Australia I had an old Palm Pilot. It was in need of replacing and I realized I wouldn't have an Australian adapter for it when I moved so I just planned on getting a new one. To tide me over I bought this notebook and still use it four years later. To be honest though I was really only using the Palm Pilot as a calendar and to play old Infocom text adventures.

Earphones lanyard
I remember when I saw this in the store for $60 dollars (Australian) and wondered what idiot would pay that much for cheap ear-bud style head phones. But it turns out to work really well. I don't have to worry about digging my iPod out of my pocket to access it and no more accidentally tangling up in the headphone cord or catching it on something and unplugging them. The iPod plugs right into the lanyard which the headphone wires go up into. That black band tying it up is a hair band for those annoying hair emergencies.

Card Wallet
Its kinda hard to see in the picture, but its in-between the notebook and the money wallet. When you buy some card tricks that require special cards they come in a little plastic wallet like this. I started carrying this around a few months ago when I was teaching a friend how to do this trick called Color Monte so he could show the magician his mother had recently started dating. The special cards aren't 'trick cards' as such just a pre-prepared surprise card for the finale. The trick itself is all slight of hand.

Oakly Sunglasses
Usually, I wind up buying a new pair of sunglasses every year either because I have lost, broke or simply scratched up my previous pair. I've had this pair for 3 years now. I scratched up previous pair pretty bad and had them in the car glove box as a back up pair till somebody broke into my car and stole them. They didn't seem that impressed by the music CDs in the car which must mean they have really bad taste or that I do.

Money Wallet
I used to have a money clip but I don't know what became of it. It was actually a Swiss Army money clip that matched the wallet and a little notebook that I also lost. Connie got me this wallet which you may have seen advertised on late night TV. It has those crossed bands of elastic so you can open it either way. You just open it, toss in a fold of money and then close and open it from the other side and the bills are now under the elastic.

iPod Nano
Its a small one compared to the larger memory sizes you can get today, but it just the thing for my unabridged audio books. It is actually a rebuilt one they replaced my previous one with when it froze up. I started having problems with this one last week but luckily they were able to fix it up without having to replace it again. Have you ever noticed that people who work at an Apple store are all way to hip? The girl there was pretty impressed with my "I don't work here." t-shirt.

Cellphone
I was a very early cellphone adopter. A friend of mine worked at Radio Shack in the late 80's and he let me use his employee discount to buy a car-mounted cell phone. I didn't really call that many people with it, but would hold it up as if I was talking to somebody and sing along to the radio. A few years later somebody broke into my car and stole the handset for it not realizing that the actual phone was this giant brick mounted under the seat. I replaced it with an early Motorola handhold and basically started using it as my everyday phone. For a number of years I didn't have a land line until I got a TiVo and needed a line to plug it into for program updates.

Keyring
So whats on the keyring besides keys? LED flashlight, 4gig memory stick, and a little hook thing that I sometimes attach my ring to so I don't loose it when I take it off. I bought this little dangly robot thing thing down in Southbank when we had a BBQ there last weekend, but I just know it won't hold up for very long so I think I'll try attaching it to the rear-view mirror of the car instead.

Shrapnel
Otherwise known as spare change. No one dollar bills in Australia so on top of the normal array of change you also have the 'gold' one and two dollar coins. I have a large jar I fill up with everything but the gold coins and then cash in at the bank. I've always wondered what they do in strip clubs if they don't have one dollar bills. I can't really believe the types of guys who hang out in strip clubs would stuff five dollar bills down a girl's g-string but I also can't see them using one dollar coins either. I keep saying I'll go investigate but haven't as of yet.

Swiss Army Knife
Its the really geeky version that not only has the scissors but also has a little pair of pliers. I really need to replace it but I haven't found a similar one or one I like.

The only thing missing is that I used to also have a pocket watch. But ever since I lost the really cool chain my brother got me for Christmas many years ago I haven't consistently carried one. I consistently keep buying new ones, getting new chains, but the other chain was just the right size, was actually two chains so it didn't run the risk of breaking, and had a really good clip to attach to my pocket.

I'm a Playstation3. I'm a Nintendo Wii.

Ah, so many possible jokes I could add to this and yet so little time. I believe the parody is from G4TV.

So with that look at where we are now with the current generation how about this pictorial history of video games consoles.

I used to have pretty much all of those including some other dedicated pong machines they don't show. I had them on display in my office at Westwood Studios at one time but wound up giving most of them away to Goodwill when I had to pack up and move to Australia. I sold the later ones and kept the current generation ones and the Vetrex.

If you tour the office of any game developer and don't see a Vetrex sitting on somebodies desk, something is horribly wrong.

I took the Vetrex home from my office and EA shut down Westwood, need I say more?